The 72-year-old “family practitioner” who personified the notorious back-alley butcher by performing illegal abortions in unsanitary conditions on desperate, mostly poor women, will be behind bars for life.

Convicted Monday of first degree murder in the deaths of three infants delivered alive and manslaughter in the overdose death of a patient, Gosnell on Tuesday agreed to waive his right to appeal in exchange for life in prison without the possibility of parole instead of the death penalty.

His convictions did not come easily for the Philadelphia jurors who deliberated for 10 days. They also convicted him of racketeering and more than 200 counts of violating Pennsylvania’s abortion laws by performing third-term abortions or failing to counsel women 24 hours in advance.

For more than six weeks jurors were subjected to gruesome testimony about the spines of newborns being snipped when they were delivered alive after illegal late-term abortions performed by Gosnell and his unlicensed staff at filthy Philadelphia offices at 38th Street and Lancaster Avenue. His practice was ironically dubbed “Women’s Medical Society Clinic.”

Former clinic employee Eileen O’Neill of Phoenixville, was convicted of taking part in a corrupt organization and illegally billing for her services as if she were a licensed doctor.

Prosecutors maintained that Gosnell made millions over three decades performing risky abortions including illegal ones past Pennsylvania’s 24-week gestation limit. Desperate women from across the region learned of his infamous practice by word of mouth and sought abortions at his clinic that authorities said made Gosnell $10,000 to $15,000 a day. He also performed abortions at Atlantic Women’s Medical Services in Wilmington, Del. that closed shortly after his arrest in 2011.

Meanwhile word was also spreading about unsanitary conditions and women suffering perforated bowels, cervixes and uteruses at the hands of Gosnell who was not board-certified in gynecology or obstetrics. Malpractice suits had been mounting against the doctor who, in one case, was accused of causing the death of a 22-year-old mother of two from a bloodstream infection and a perforated uterus in 2000.

The state’s failure to properly monitor Gosnell’s clinic resulted in the firing of four attorneys and two supervisors in the Pennsylvania departments of health and state in February 2011, and the enactment of tougher regulations for clinics. Sadly they came too late for the victims of Gosnell’s greed.

Anti-abortion advocates insist Gosnell’s case is an indictment against the legalization of abortion. In fact, there is nothing legal about what this disgraced doctor represents. Quite simply, Kermit Gosnell is a ruthless criminal who exploited desperate women, disregarding their lives and the lives of their infants, for the sake of a buck.